Pulse Secure Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process kicked off with a solid hour-long conversation with the hiring manager. Following that, I was tasked with creating an industry-specific blog post along with an abstract. It struck me as unusual for a senior content role to require a writing sample, especially given my extensive portfolio. However, due to the pandemic, I proceeded with creating the sample, which took several hours. After submitting it, there was a two-week silence before I followed up and was scheduled for interviews with three team members, which went smoothly. Next, I had an interview with the CMO, who unfortunately ate during our Zoom call. Another two-week gap followed, and despite my subsequent follow-ups, a month passed. I finally emailed the CMO to inquire about the status, only to discover they had hired someone else without informing me. My advice to other candidates: be cautious, as this company clearly lacks organization.

So, the interview kicked off with a quick presentation thing around 11 AM, and right after that, I had a coding challenge on Hackerrank. There were 3 questions in total, like 2 were pretty simple, dealing with arrays and some basic math, but one was a bit of a curveball. If you pass that, there's a chill HR chat and then the main technical interview. They asked me a lot about my past and current projects, plus some operating systems and intermediate C++ stuff. The people interviewing were super patient and asked some really thought-provoking questions. Even though I missed a couple, I still felt good about it all. They really seemed to care about data structures, networks, and OS knowledge.

Awful process. This is probably the first time I am glad I didn't get an offer. A recruiter asked me if I wanted to interview with them the next day. The first person I spoke to was awful, he was only showing off about how much money he was making and how bad you are if you don't have a background in security. I was already a bit skeptical of that behavior but decided to give another opportunity on the second stage (maybe this person would be nicer). First, he just went on about how he had no clue why he was on an interview with me and how he was actually looking for someone who would move abroad but he wasn’t getting the company’s support (there was nothing on the role about moving abroad?). No one was actually aware of what was happening. After a couple of days I reached out to the recruiter to find out what was happening. As expected, I did not get an offer (first time I am happy of not getting one). Probably a good job if you don’t want to be treated like a human being, a lot to improve for a company that is looking to expand… I would suggest to first expand their manners and improve behavior towards candidates.

The interviewers were good. They focused on packet and application level analysis of TCP/IP, HTTP, and HTTPS. The questions were tricky and not straightforward, requiring a lot of thought to avoid confusion. Solid knowledge of CCNA and CCNP is crucial. I wasn't well-prepared, which is why it's hard to crack if you're not ready. There's a good reason they offer high packages.